Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Supergirl #65 Solicit - Enter Another New Creative Team

The June DC solicits are now up everywhere and I will discuss the usual ones at some point. But the Supergirl #65 solicit warrants its own post.

SUPERGIRL #65

Written by KELLY SUE DECONNICK

Art by CHRISCROSS and MARC DEERING

Cover by MAHMUD ASRAR

Co-ed of Steel? Supergirl goes undercover on a college campus to help Lois Lane uncover the truth behind a string of recent student disappearances! What they uncover, though, leads Supergirl directly into a confrontation with one of the DCU’s deadliest villains!

So it looks as though we have another creative team coming on board. I will be completely honest is saying that I haven't read anything by Kelly Sue DeConnick. In looking on line, she has done mostly Marvel titles like theOsborn mini-series and the Sif and Rescueone-shots. I have seen the Rescue and Sif books on the shelves of my comic store, so I might pick them up to get a sense of her style.

I know ChrisCross mostly from the under-appreciated Peter David Captain Marvel series. I have some of his Firestorm run as well. I have always liked his work so can't wait to see his take on Supergirl. And Mahmud Asrar does the cover here as he did on Supergirl #64. I like this cover a lot, as their really is a sense of eeriness here.

What this title needs is committed and excited creative team. I hate to keep going back to the Gates/Igle run but I remember when they were announced as coming on to the book. There were interviews with them on lots of sites; they talked about their history with the character. They talked about their long term goals on the book. I want a creative team like that to come on board, creators with passion and plans.

This solicit also makes it clear that the tenure of the creative team of James Peaty writing, Bernard Chang penciling, Amy Reeder on covers was a brief one. I know the Alex/Clone arc is half done but I want to thank them all for their work so far. I am sure it wasn't easy for James Peaty to pick up Nick Spencer's story and act as a 3+ issue pinch hitter. But he has captured Kara's voice nicely. Bernard Chang's two issues so far have been beautiful (as were his BizarroGirl issues). His Supergirl is athletic and beautiful and tough. And Amy Reeder had the hard task of following Josh Middleton but really produced some wonderful covers. In many ways I am sad to see this team go. If this blog reaches you, I wish you all the best.

But as usual, this raises the 'cancellation concerns' in my head. I don't think I would be surprised if the last words on the solicit for Supergirl #67 were 'final issue'.

You know me, Mr Cock-Eyed Optimist. But really, it doesn't inspire optimism when DC seem so unwilling to assign an ongoing team to the book. I thought exactly the same thing as you, Anj, that the solicit for #67 may bring a message of doom.

I was hoping recent rescue writer James Peaty would be given a chance to run with the comic for awhile - perhaps he simply didn't want it. Kelly Sue DeConnick's story sounds interesting, but really, I just wish DC would announce SOMEONE as indefinite writer, so they can settle in and make plans. Ditto as regards the artistic team - at least we know ChrisCross is good.

The only thing I've read, that I can recall, by Kelly Sue, was Sif #1, about which I had mixed feelings. Anyway, the best of luck to her.

I think what it will end up coming down to is whether or not DC wants a Supergirl book on the shelves. In trying to be optimistic they may pull a cancel and renumber if they want to keep Kara in the spotlight outside of the League, or they may even try to give sales a boost by bringing back Gates after this next arc. To me it looks like they're trying to get the numbers up with different creative teams hoping one will catch on. Personally I just hope if they do end up canceling the book Kara ends up long term on the League, or at least has a recurring role in Action Comics.

I'm still baffled why they got rid of Sterling in the first place, or why they haven't tried to court Bryan Q. Millar onto the book.

As usual, DidioDC pushes the hot new talent (Nick Spencer) to Marvel and/or Image with their creative meddling, but makes sure to take on Marvel's cast-offs (Sean McKeever, Chuck Austin, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, etc.) Way to be #2!

I also love the logic of having the writer of "Osborne" transition to Supergirl, presumably based solely on the lack of a y-chromosome. Maybe we can get Marjorie Liu on Wonder Woman next?

Anj wrote:"I like this cover a lot, as their really is a sense of eeriness here."

Supergirl: "Seriously people, no more autographs!"

I also didn't know Kelly Sue DeConnick was until I found out that she is writing the Black Widow/Sharon Carter Captain America one shot that is coming out this month. My enthusiasm has been tempered somewhat now that it has been revealed that her tenure on Supergirl will be brief. Supergirl #100? My hope that this run will surpass the Peter David run is now also in doubt.

You know who would be a great long term writer for Supergirl? LANDRY WALKER. We all know that he has a great appreciation of her character and history from Cosmic Adventures and his portfolio from The Incredibles, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and the Mad Hatter story from Joker's Asylum 2 shows that his writing skills have depth.

Perhaps we should express our concerns to DC directly: http://www.dccomics.com/sites/dcletterspage/

I agree with Gene that Landry Walker would be a perfect fit for Supergirl. The problem here is that once Sterling Gates left, his long-term plans for the character went out the window. Then, Spencer jumped ship, so his long-term (or short-term) plans never happened. So now DC is scrambling to pick up the pieces. With a lot of the top-list talent working on the Elseworlds-like "Flashpoint" minis, who is left to take on writing Kara full-time?

If "Supergirl" is cancelled, I am going to be furious. There used to be a sense of history in comic books. There was a sense of pride and accomplishment when Spider-Man made it to 300 issues. It's a big deal. Rebooting the Supergirl title back to #1 to increase sales temporarily will only succeed in pissing off loyal fans.

The only book that seems to have a long-term plan is "Superboy," which I am loving right now. Supergirl deserves better than this. She deserves an A-list creative team: if "Grounded" can get one, why not Supergirl? I am really frustrated with comics right now.

As much as I'd be upset if Supergirl didn't reach #75 and #100, I'd rather they restart it at #1 with long term plans and creative team for Kara then cancel it outright. Unless those long term plans are terrible... but I don't know how we'd know that in advance. Plus they can always re-renumber it back right near 100 like they've done for other books.

The best thing I think we can hope for is that sales rise somewhat before the end of the summer. The most recent drop wasn't that big (I could have read it wrong, but it only looked like 100 issue difference between Jan and Feb), if sales rise whoever's writing causes the rise might be kept on for longer.

The best thing to do to avoid stressing about this is to be blindly optimistic for as long as humanly possible.

I'm truly very worried as to the very existance of our girl's title post #63 now.

Hmmm...if DC cant give us either Gates or Walker then how about handing the title over to Gail Simone? Simone is only writing "Secret Six" and "Birds of Prey" right now, and y'all will be happy to know that like us she too is another longtime fan of Supergirl (just look at what she had to say about our girl in the "Superman/Batman: Apocalypse" DVD special feature). Aside from Gail i'd even be happy to have Jimmy Palmiotti take over i mean he GETS Kara in not only "Power Girl" (prior to Judd taking over the title) but even when handling her in "Wednesday Comics".

PS: I've been noticing as of late the newly brought back DCU letter columns are now starting to appear in majority of DCU titles, all except for the ones that have been officialy noted as being canceled (e.g. "Doom Patrol"), so i think our only way of knowing for sure at this stage as to whether or not Kara's title is or isn't going to be canceled is depending on whether or not we see a 2 page letter column starting as of next week's due out issue #63 asking fans to send in letters regarding what they think of her title and would like to see happen to Kara this year at that.

Well, I'm somewhat surprised to be in this position this far into a response thread, but let me be the first to say "Welcome Kelly Sue!" I'll be looking forward to seeing your writing here.

Honestly, I know we're all getting a little shell-shocked with the constant changes, but I'm going to try to remain positive about this news until I have a reason to not be. Though I haven’t read anything else DeConnick’s written I enjoyed the Osborn mini-series, and I’m going to try to hunt up the Sif stories.

I also love the logic of having the writer of "Osborne" transition to Supergirl, presumably based solely on the lack of a y-chromosome.

Seriously? How do you know this? Considering the sausage fest that constitutes most of comic book writing, and the fact that Supergirl hasn’t had a female writer in the 60-plus issues of the current run, I’m surprised that suddenly the gender of the new writer is an issue for anyone.

Please god not Palmiotti. No "I'd rather be dancing." No "tee-hee, you can talk to dogs, Aquaman, right?" No tears, I'm sorry, doofus Supergirl.

Bringing back Gates wouldn't fix sales either. Under Gates, the sales fell to close to where they are currently. Plus there are plenty of people who dropped the book precisely because of issue 20-present changes that would not be lured back by this backwards looking move.

I'd hate to say it, but unless they can get back the mojo of Loeb or even Pete David's early stuff, and unless they can ignore the blogger dictated restrictions that have seen this massive sales drop and fracturing of the character's base, I don't think the future prognosis is too good.

I will miss Peaty already as his first couple of issues were really impressive and a writer deserves a proper run on a book, not just a flying visit as has become the norm in (superman) comics. But I think perhaps we focus far too much on the creative side of this as so far the quality of the book has been uniformly high, if you didn't pay attention to the writer credits you wouldn't know there had been a change... where the danger does come from is that you DO notice a shift in style and quality, and not one for the better.I do agree that when a book plays musical chairs with writers like this it usually precedes cancellation but Supergirls sales are still good so I don't think its a worry as yet, all this is is symptomatic of the Superman offices now trademark itchy feet.Storylines are wound up unceromoniously, writers leave abruptly, solicits change between months, big 'event' storylines are cobbled together in no time flat, Gimmick storylines like the Superboy/Kid Flash race are thrown in - The only certain thing in the Superman world these days is that you come to accept all this flux & chaos as a normal practise!

Yeah I'm definitely concerned about this lack of a permanent creative team. On a bit of a different note Anj, I thought you may be interested in this: http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/8338/fans-will-get-to-say-goodbye-to-supergirl.html. Maybe you could do a post on this news.

If I had my druthers I'd love to see Mark Waid writing Supergirl. I thought he wrote a pretty good Supergirl in "The Brave and the Bold".I realize Waid is waaa-ay out of position but it's a fun thought nonetheless.Besides, Waid is a true Kara Zor El fan who stood up for her back when it was an unpopulr stance...

With me I'm just happy the series has picked up ever\since Jamal and Sterling took over. They did an awesome job. Spencer's take was interesting and Peatty picked up the loose ends right after he left. I'm happy that for the first time this series has a female writer!And DeConnick is a great choice for writting her. I've read the Osborn mini's and they're great!

I just hope DC can get it's act together and not allow this character to sit on the backburner again. -ealperin

I would love Brian Q Miller in this title, his job on the current Batgirl is awesome. His Supergirl Batgirl team up in Batgirl 14 was hilarious. So it would be real good to have him writing Supergirl as well.